All aboard the Dawn Princess

We are currently on board the impressive ship the Dawn Princess, enjoying a 5 day cruise. We flew out of Adelaide Tuesday morning to melbourne where we boarded. After boarding we reflected back on our morning where we had experienced many modes of transport eg. Car, shuttle bus, plane, sky bus, taxi and then ship. The transport was very efficient with no waiting at all.

From melbourne the ship travelled to Burnie where we could disembark for a few hours and have a look around the town. We enjoyed talking to the shop owners and wandering around. A very friendly and welcoming place with great shuttle buses running from the ship to town all the while the ship was docked.

We arrived in Hobart yesterday lunchtime and head off around 4pm today. We then spend the next 2 days at sea on our way to our final destination, Sydney.

On board the boat has been amazing, you can partake in planned activities, watch movies on the big outdoor cinema, or indoor theatre, there is different entertainment each night. We enjoyed a comedian the other night. All the passengers and service staff are so friendly and easy to talk to. We are also enjoying having plenty of time to just chill out in our lovely room which has a private balcony with table and chairs...a great place to read a book, get some fresh air and watch the passing scenery.

Here are some photos that I've taken over the past few days.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That's all for now...hope it all uploads ok....Annette

 

 

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Nearly time!

All the planning has been done and we look forward to board the Dawn Princess cruise ship from Melbourne on Tuesday for 5 days. We then have a couple of days in sydney before flying back home.

I have installed the blogsy app for my ipad so I'm testing out this post with it.

We look forward to...

A balcony room...

Trying out the many eateries...

Maybe a spa or relaxing with a book on the day beds...

Maybe taking in a movie.

If this post uploads ok, I'll try and do a post or two while we are away.

Annette

 

 

 

 

 

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Time for a laugh!

I came across this home made video of a farming family who have put together their story to the Gagnam Style tune...it's so well done I thought I'd share it. Sit back for a few minutes and enjoy!




 

Healthy Banana Muffins

Over the past few months I've been cutting out a lot of processed foods and amending recipes to be more healthy.
I've discovered Almond meal to be a great replacement for flour and I've also been replacing butter/marg with olive oil.

I tried some Banana Muffins on the weekend and they were delicious.
I did make some amendments to the original recipe and next time I reckon I'll tweak it some more by replacing the 1 cup of SR Flour with wholemeal flour and taking the sugar out altogether and perhaps adding a bit more golden syrup/honey to compensate.

 

The original recipe can be found here.  And below is my version. I've made a note on my recipe as to what changes I made from the original. No need for a mixer either, I just used the whisk to gently mix all the ingredients together...simple and quick!

 

I'd love to hear of how you have altered recipes to be a healthier option.

 

A bit of this and a bit of that!

Looking back at the photos I've taken over the past few weeks took me only a few seconds!!! I have not been good at clicking away lately so don't have much to show unfortunately.

Once a year we have a 'sisters' weekend away, where it's just us and no partners. This year we stayed at the Marion Caravan Park again for a couple of nights in a 6 berth cabin.
It's always a great time of chilling, shopping, eating, drinking, talking, laughing etc. The below photos are from the caravan park website....I may put some others up at a later stage.

We spent a couple of hours on Saturday afternoon in this pool. It was just beautiful.

This was our unit...we had our own BBQ outside with seating for 6. The surroundings were so tranquil with large trees and ducks wandering around.

Last year it was fun watching Dan & Telesha's house being built and turned into a lovely home. Now our eldest son Adrian and his partner Chelsea's house has just started, so we look forward to the progress of theirs.

Last Sunday we spent the morning out at D&T's house, helping them plant out trees and shrubs on their border lines. 

We are very fortunate to have both our sons living close by so we can help
them out with practical things like this. 

In about a months time we are having a weeks holiday and doing a 5 day cruise onboard the Dawn Princess. We finish up in Sydney where we will spend another 2 days having a look around. We are looking forward to this and hopefully we have good sea legs!!

 

 While watching the Adelaide Crows first AFL match for the season last night, I gave myself a manicure and tried out a new nail polish. Quite happy with it! Thanks to hubby for putting up with the smell of the varnish!

My Pinterest find for the week is this wrap...think I might try it for lunch today.

The filling is 4 hard boiled eggs, 1 large avocado, 2 tblspns yoghurt, 1 tspn curry, pinch of salt and pepper....sounds good to me!

Have a great weekend

Some exciting news!

Yes, very exciting...our son Daniel who got engaged to Telesha in December are going to have a baby in September!  Paul and I are delighted and look forward to the fun times ahead.

That's all for now...short and sweet!

Oops!

Just a quick post...not much happening besides work and normal routines! Paul's Dad is improving daily and will hopefully be home in the coming weeks.

I have a bit of an 'oops' situation the other day. I opened one of my kitchen cupboards and out slid one of my glass casserole dishes from the top shelf. It smashed to smitherines and I was very fortunate not to have any shards land on my feet as I had thongs on.

How's this for a cute birthday cake?

I saw this on facebook the other day...very funny and maybe even a clever idea?!

Today is a new day...enjoy!

Happenings

Blogging has taken a back seat over the past couple of weeks as my father-in-law had a stroke the other week. It had affected all his righthand side, but he has been improving daily and hopefully will make a full recovery with rehab. As he was the carer for my mother-in-law we have had to get interim care services in place as we assess the situation day by day. Fortunately there are 4 children in my hubby's family, so we are all sharing the load.
We are so blessed to have such loving and caring families.




Annette

Carnation Delight

A very simple and economical dessert that Mum used to make quite a lot is called 'Carnation Delight'. It is a lovely melt in your mouth light dessert that you can accompany with any fruit of your choice.

All you need is:
1 tin of chilled Carnation Milk
3/4 cup of sugar
4 teaspoons of gelatine dissolved in ¼ cup of hot water

Simply beat the milk until it bulks up, add the sugar and then the gelatine. Keep beating until all has mixed well.
Pour into a slice container and set in the fridge.

These aren't very exciting photos, but believe me it tastes really good!

 

It's Australia Day here in down under. A day where us 'Aussies' celebrate all things Australian!

The most common being throwing a chop or sausage on the BBQ!

Whatever you're doing, I hope you enjoy your weekend. I found the below phot on on facebook last night...quite an interesting pic!

 Happy Australia Day!

My first BellaBox arrived!

Not sure if you have heard of BellaBox but you pay a monthly subscription of $15 and receive a box of goodies in the mail each month of new sample beauty type products.

One of my friends has been receiving them for quite a while now and the products she was receiving were awesome. They range from new products in makeup, skincare and lifestyle.


So, I signed up in December and received my first box yesterday...very exciting!!

You can earn reward points to spend in the BellaBox online store by referring people and signing up yourself.

One little gem that my friend received in her box the other month was a packet of 'zipettes' which are designed to hold the zip up on your pants...brilliant! She gave me one and they are just the best...I didn't realise how many pants I wasn't wearing because the zip kept coming down. I will be buying a pack myself.

 

You just cliip it onto the top of the zipper and hook the rubber part over the button and then just button up as normal. How clever!

A Bellabox subscription would make a great gift too for any girl who loves trying products and getting surprises in the mail.

Anyway if you would like to discover BellaBox for yourself click here

As mentioned if you sign up through that link I do receive reward points or you can just go to their site direct.